Chapter 21:
Cultural Geography of Africa South of the Sahara

Student Web Activities

Your Results:

"Apartheid in South Africa"

IntroductionIn this chapter you learned about the culture of Africa South of the Sahara and Central Asia. One of the most beautiful places of this region is the country of South Africa, a nation with a troubled history of European involvement and local conflict. One of the most disturbing policies to come out of this country was that of apartheid, or the legal separation of races. Nonwhite South Africans were denied basic human and legal rights in this nation until the early 1990s.

ObjectiveStudents will understand the policy of apartheid and how the nonwhite peoples of South Africa were treated and their struggle for equality.

DirectionsResearch credible websites and complete the questions and activity that follows:

Take notes as well as record the websites you visit and answer the following questions:

1

Who were the two large European powers to originally colonize in South Africa?

2

In what year were the apartheid laws originally instituted? Give examples of some restrictions placed on nonwhites?

3

What was the approximate difference between nonwhites and whites in the 1970s? How much more land did whites control than nonwhites?

4

When was the Freedom Charter written? What does the charter remind you of?

5

What is the African National Congress? In 1994, what principles did the Congress adopt?

ActivityDetecting BiasTake time to find and read “White Man’s Burden,” by Rudyard Kipling. What bias can you detect in the poem of this famous author? How would this view of native people in Africa allow some people to justify the mistreatment of nonwhite people? How was this view evident in the history of the United States?